AREA DOESN'T NEED POT SHOP

Editor:

Re: Marijuana shop opens in Ridge, TIMES, May 4

How many residents of Maple Ridge woke up Monday with the expectation
that a medical marijuana distribution centre would be opened down the
street from their home by the time they got home from work?

Over the course of 24 hours the community of Haney went from one that
was recovering from the ongoing damage caused by the mismanagement of
Northumberland Court (aka the Ghetto) to being the centre of a
medicinal marijuana distribution hub. How did this happen?

It certainly did not happen with any community input whatsoever. The
first report that the facility had opened up was found in the Monday
morning edition of the Vancouver Province. That was it. That was the
level of community input that was undertaken.

Trying to find out anything about the group (running) this facility
one will discover that the organization that will run this facility
has been in existence since December 2009, a whopping four months.
(This is a) group that is running a facility within a block of two
narcotic recovery centres, within a rural neighbourhood. This on top
of the fact that Northumberland has still not been completely settled
and it is literally around the corner. Now had there been any
community consultation this would have come out and perhaps the
community would have supported the facility.

Lots of arguments can be made and no doubt will be. Outright
legalization, the argument around medical benefits, the fact that the
war on drugs has been a bigger failure than the second Iraq war, the
money that can be made from taxation, and no doubt there are
countless other opinions that would need to be expressed. That
expression won't happen though because all the decisions have been
made. There is one argument that cannot be denied. This facility has
been dropped on the Haney community with no regard to the community's
needs or future plans. No discussion around issues such as zoning or
why this type of facility should be in a medical building as opposed
to a house on 224th Street. No discussion as to whether the group
that is undertaking this has the qualifications, experience and
understanding of what will happen next. There has been no discussion, period.

So now that it has opened, what happens next? Unfortunately, it will
probably be at best some half-hearted efforts to 'consult' the
community on a facility that has already been decided upon and
regardless of input is here to stay. This community will not be taken
down the path of being abused under the guise of altruism. We in this
community bore the brunt of indecision and poor management for years
while Northumberland declined. This community is our home and many of
us in the area banded together quite recently to fight for it, and I
have every belief that if necessary we will do so again.

Tyler Ducharme,

Maple Ridge